The invention relates to electric contact terminals, designed to insure linkage with coaxial cables which are to be connected to one another, or to equipment, by means of connectors, and its object is, more particularly, such contact terminals for which the operation of connection can be carried out automatically.
At present, the connection of a coaxial cable to a connector is obtained by first connecting the core of the cable, previously stripped, to a first conductor element, for example by a first operation of crimping, then connecting, for example by a second crimping operation, the armor braid, likewise stripped beforehand, to another conductor element, which can be similar and adjacent or near to the first in the connector equipped with these elements, or which can envelope the first in its position in the connector, the first and second conductor elements then being, respectively, the central conductor element and the peripheral conductor element of a coaxial type connection terminal for a coaxial cable, one end of which, suitably bared, is introduced parallel to the axis of the cable, in the coaxial terminal prior to the crimping operations.
It is the object of the invention to permit automation of the operations of connection of a coaxial cable, which at the present time are carried out manually, by proposing conductive contact elements which can be combined to embody two types of terminals, one of which is particularly intended for the coaxial connection of the coaxial cable, and the other is intended particularly for the connection of the core and the armor braid of the coaxial cable to nearby or adjacent conductor elements, combined with an adaptor proper to the invention.
With this in mind, the contact terminal according to the invention, comprising two conductor elements electrically insulated from one another, and each having a connection portion, by means of which the first and the second elements are connected, respectively, to the core and to the armor braid of a coaxial cable, is characterized in that each of these connecting portions is constituted in the form of a portion with a U-shaped section, that of the second element having a wider base than that of the first, and being disposed in the extension of the latter, in the position of use of the terminal, the two U-shaped portions being open on the same side, so that the positioning of the coaxial cable on the contact terminal, with a view to carrying out the operations of connection, may be done not only by a displacement of the coaxial cable parallel to its axis, but also by a displacement in a translation perpendicular to its axis, which is easy to embody automatically, the connection properly speaking of the core and the armor braid of the cable, respectively in the U-shaped portion of the first and of the second element, being obtainable by crimping, by welding, or by any other form of connection, compatible with a displacement in a translation perpendicular to the axis of the coaxial cable. In particular, at least one of the U-shaped portions of the terminal can be equipped with an internal contact fork, between the two arms of which the core and/or the armor braid of the cable, according to cases, will be inserted and retained following a positioning by translation perpendicular to the axis. This internal fork of contact, constituted by an inserted piece or by a cutout in the flanks of the U-shaped portion, of arms folded back opposite one another, in the interior of this U-shaped portion, can be of the elastic or semi-elastic type, the retention of the core an/or of the armor braid being insured by the elastic nip of the arms. But, advantageously, at least one of the internal contact forks is self-stripping, so that it will not be necessary to strip the end of the cable to free the core or the armor braid prior to the operation of positioning the cable on the terminal, with a view to a connection.